1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying electronic program guide (hereinafter referred to as “EPG”) information and a broadcasting receiver thereof, and more particularly, to an EPG information display method and apparatus for simplifying the search for a broadcast program and a broadcasting receiver thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
EPG information is announcement information for broadcast programs that can be received by a broadcasting receiver. Thus, a user can search for a desired broadcast program on an EPG information screen displayed on a display unit of the broadcasting receiver. FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a conventional EPG information screen. Referring to FIG. 1, EPG information is categorized according to channel and time, and program titles are displayed as program information. However, since the size of the screen to be displayed is fixed, the user must move the EPG information screen upward, downward, or to the right/left in order to search for EPG information other than the EPG information currently displayed on the screen.
To increase the range of detecting EPG information displayed on an EPG information screen, a method of adjusting the time axis of the EPG information screen as illustrated in FIG. 2 has been proposed. FIG. 2 is a view illustrating the EPG information screen, illustrated in FIG. 1, which is adjusted by reducing the time axis. When the time axis of the EPG information screen is reduced as illustrated in FIG. 2, the search range of available broadcast programs displayed on the EPG information screen according to time is greater than on the EPG information screen illustrated in FIG. 1.
However, when the time axis of the EPG information screen is reduced while fixing the channel axis thereof as illustrated in FIG. 2, the sizes of regions, e.g., display regions 201 through 208 of FIG. 2, of the screen that respectively display program titles are reduced, and thus, the program titles may not be completely displayed. For instance, in the case of the display region 201, the program title “Today's Sports” is completely displayed in FIG. 1 but only “Today” of the program title “Today's Sports” is displayed due to a reduction in the display regions in FIG. 2. If program titles are not completely displayed, it is difficult to search a displayed EPG information screen for broadcast programs.
To solve this problem, the channel axis of an EPG information screen can be increased while reducing the time axis thereof, as illustrated in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the EPG information screen of FIG. 1, which is adjusted by reducing the time axis of the screen and increasing the channel axis thereof. However, since the size of an EPG information screen that displays EPG information is fixed as described above, an increase in the channel axis length of the screen may result in a reduction in a total number of channels that can be displayed on the screen as illustrated in FIG. 3. If a total number of channels that can be displayed is reduced, the search range of available broadcast programs according to time is increased, but the search range of available broadcast programs according to channel is reduced.
Accordingly, the ranges of adjusting the time axis and the channel axis of the EPG information screen are limited, thereby limiting the search range of available EPG information displayed in the EPG information screen.